John Altavilla

Writer

John Altavilla, a native of Trumbull, CT., has worked at The Courant since 1996, covering a variety of events including major league baseball, the NFL's New York Giants, UConn women's basketball and Yale football. He is set to begin his eighth straight season as the Huskies’ beat writer in 2014-15. Altavilla attended the University of Bridgeport and began his sportswriting career with the New Haven Register in 1980.

Recent Articles

The Hall boys and Bloomfield girls won their respective indoor track and field classification championships last week with impressive performances which, if you have been following the programs, was nothing unusual. But on Saturday, things were quite different when the State Open championships...

During its four seasons in Hockey East, UConn had never won as many as 10 league games until this year. That’s a big step. And not since 2001-02, which predates coach Mike Cavanaugh’s arrival by 11 years, had it won six straight like it had over the last month. That’s a nice roll. These accomplishments...

When Mike Cavanaugh set out to build his first UConn recruiting class in 2013 he knew exactly what type of player he was looking for. “I certainly wanted to upgrade the skill level because I knew, after spending so many years in the league [as a Boston College recruit], what it would take to compete,”...

On the day after the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, those who are now in the school or are alumni are grieving over the senseless loss of 17 lives. One of those is Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo. Rizzo sent his condolences and encouragement Wednesday on Twitter. In November,...

Not long after he won a third gold medal on the halfpipe Wednesday, snowboarding star Shaun White found himself on the NBC’s “Today” show apologizing for referring to a sexual misconduct lawsuit filed against him in 2016 as gossip. "I'm truly sorry that I chose the word 'gossip,'" White said. This...

The New York Rangers have made the playoffs seven straight seasons and 11 of the last 12. In other words, totally reliable. But this season has been somewhat of a struggle, and they had lost seven of their last 10 prior to Tuesday’s game at Minnesota and sat two points out of a wild card berth...

Let’s face it, when it comes to boys and girls indoor track in Class LL, certainly since 2000, those competing for team championships have come to a certain understanding. Danbury is good. No, actually, Danbury has been exceptional. Coming into Saturday’s championships at Floyd Little Athletic...

Admit it, it’s been a bad few weeks for Tom Brady. First some radio guy in Boston calls his small daughter a bad name. Then the Eagles beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl. And now this: The Boston Herald was forced to retract a story about Brady that relied on, for the lack of a better expression,...